Japan 1941

Japan 1941: Countdown to Infamy by Eri Hotta, Alfred A. Knopf, 2013. 

Imperial Japan

In 1941 the political and military leaders in Japan made a decision to extend their invasion of Asia to include attacking Great Britain and the United States. (their colonies). It was a close decision and easily could have gone the other way,. Only a minority of Japan’s leaders wanted to expand the war to include Britain, the United States and to expand into southeast Asia.

Army Defeats Navy

The Japanese Army was pro-expansion, bu the Japanese Navy was opposed. The Navy knew that eventually they would lose to the much more powerful navies of Great Britain and the US. Especially the U.S., which had a huge industrial economy behind it.

Culture of Docility

If the majority of Japan’s military and political leaders were  opposed to expanding WWII, why did the minority get its way? The answer is that the anti-expansion leaders were moral cowards. In particular, none of them wanted to be the first to stand up and oppose the militarists. Some of them were willing to stand second, if someone else stood up first, but no one wanted to stand up first.